Summary
- Willy Chavarria has become the ACLU’s first fashion designer Artist Ambassador, using his platform to support LGBTQ+ and immigrant rights, following recent runway shows that protested immigration crackdowns and promoted human dignity.
Willy Chavarria has officially joined the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) as the first fashion designer to become an Artist Ambassador.
In support of the ACLU’s championing of LGBTQ+ and immigrant rights, Chavarria joins figures like actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson and culinary personality Padma Lakshmi who have partnered with the organization to protect the human rights and freedoms of all.
“Art, music, and fashion can have tremendous impact on how we realize and promote social justice and human dignity. I’m happy to further utilize my own platform for the empowerment of others,” Chavarria said in a statement to WWD.
The news comes just weeks after Chavarria staged his SS26 runway show in Paris, which opened with a commentary on the US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration. Highlighting the inhumane conditions reported at immigrant detention centers, models dressed in white uniforms sat in line formation with their heads down. The SS26 presentation concurred with the release of a collaboration with the Human Rights Campaign and Tinder, reprising the “How we love is who we are” graphic tees from his FW25 presentation.
In January, the designer used his FW25 Paris debut as a platform for protest as well. At the final walk, a recording of Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s critical sermon for Trump’s inauguration played, pleading for the president’s “mercy” on immigrants and queer people.
Following the announcement of his inclusion in the ACLU’s Creatives for Freedom campaign in April, the designer said, “In this moment more than any other in our lifetime, what we do and what we say must be an act of protecting human dignity and our human rights.”
“We need to band together to prove that we are not divided. The ACLU is key in guiding where and how we can align to preserve and protect democracy,” he continued.
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